Vida

Twas the day before Christmas Eve The Chicago neighborhoods were silent except for the clatter of thunder  and rain pitter pattering outside the window twas a strange christmas season for all no complaints coming from here

Another December weekend.  Another weekend full of festivities.  5 notes from the weekend. 1 - Anyone guilty of purchasing a gift for someone and adding something in for yourself?  Especially with the current discounts!  Yes, I am! Somebody got some brand new wheels! After some somewhat in depth bike shopping, we fell in love with Oscar Wastyn .  The laid back sales, in depth knowledge and perks.   2 - Let the shopping ensue.  I finished most of my shopping before Christmas since we exchanged most of my immediate family gifts Thanksgiving Weekend.  (Excluding my dad, mom, and sister who I got to procrastinate on like everyone else.)  Mike though...not so much.  We hit up Kohls in the morning and kept searching/fighting the crowds for the final touch on his sister's gift.  Once I reached my shopping limit and I was so hungry...we stopped. 3 - Hello Zoolights !  It's just for fun. 4 - Molly's Cupcakes and hot chocolate since for some reason we decided to do Zo

Do you have any cookies you associate with Christmas or you just happen to cook around this time every year? I mentioned we had a cookie baking party a couple weeks ago.  We made two cookies and they were a couple of our favorites: Chocolate Chip, M&M Cookies - Make your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and add M&Ms.  Easy.  Bonus if you use M&M colors for the season.  Right now:  red and green.  We did not do that. You know Peanut Butter Blossoms?  Replace the Hershey's kiss with a Resees Peanut Butter cup and bake in those little muffin tins.  (We always use them for these cookies and spinach balls.) Insert Mike's cookie work competition.  Also insert Mike's competitive spirit.  We picked these Hot Cocoa Cookies (discovered on buzzfeed ).  They were somewhat easy and pretty so we went for it.  Keys to any cookie competition:  it needs to taste good, but more importantly be pretty! He got second.  Which I was very happy with. Any cookie

Yes it is the off season.  And things are still happening!  April 4th come faster!!!! The biggest/latest news from the Cardinals: Lackey (pitcher) went to the Cubs.  No surprise there.  Well maybe the Cubs was the most surprising part.  Him moving on...no surprise.  He had an outstanding 2015, but I feel like I even read an article in the middle of the season with a tone that he was preparing for 2016 with a new ball club.  The Cardinals made him an offer.  It wasn't enough money.  The Cubs:  they have money.  And we move on.  ( Read more ) Lynn (pitcher) is out next season.  He had Tommy John surgery as soon as this season ended and it has quite a recovery time.  Can we expect a Wainwright-like return in 2016?  Probably not.  Considering this and the above bullet.  Bring on the pitchers ( although they say we still have a lot )!  ( Read more )   I do hope to see Marco Gonzales make a reappearance in 2016 after an injury filled 2015 Jay is leaving!  I speak for all of Car

Every year I try to add one or two purchased/homemade ornaments to my tree a year.  I love putting all the ornaments on the tree and having a story for each one.  And I do.  This year as Mike helped me decorate my tree I made him listen to each story.   This year I hadn't picked an ornament and I have no burning desires/ideas to make one.  As we browsed Renegade, I initially saw one, wanted to think about it, and by the time I was ready to go and went back for the ornament it was sold out.   East Grove Stamp Co. made one batch of the ornaments for this year.  I originally had my eye on this one .  Lesson:  buy it when you originally see it.  I like to think about purchases though. After thinking about the ornament for awhile I still thought it would be fun to get one (albeit a different one) because now it definitely has a story.  I chose this one: Merry & Bright .  And I'm getting it personalized because for $1.50 why not?  And I got 15% off since I picked up their bu

We all talk about how busy the summer is.  How we need to squeeze everything in.  And we run around like crazy for three months and almost need the break that fall brings.  (Right, Chicagoans?)  I would almost venture to say December is the busiest month of the year. so  much to do Last weekend was crazy fun and super busy! No better way to start than at Bridgeport Coffee before checking out Renegade .   Pause:  Scratch that.  We started the day at Walgreens.  I decided I wanted lipstick like the girl wears in Spectre in the dining scene .  And I decided to go where I go for all my make-up needs:  Walgreens.  I searched and searched while referencing a photo on my phone.  I found one I thought was satisfactory.   Back to Renegade.  So swamped.  We got there right when it started and I am glad we did because as we were leaving it seemed to be even busier!  We did take a photo booth photo which is hilarious.  I love it, but I think we failed a little.  Karen & Molly are

So many great Christmas gifts are items that you would love, but you're not willing to make the splurge on yourself.  The gift that makes the splurge for you and upgrades your normal purchases are just great.  Amiright? For example, I would love: Chocolate, Coffee Bread !  Yes.  Even with Intelligentsia Coffee.  Bring on the shakes. Do you think they'll be any version of this at Renegade this weekend?  I'll look! Fancy Shampoo .  Maybe it sounds boring, but I buy the $4 stuff from Target/Walgreens.  This is quite an indulgence. I love face mists!  They are expensive.  I recently purchased one to treat myself and promised it was a one time purchase.  And then there's this ...which also looks lovely! I have definitely been eyeing a perfume for awhile, but I can't commit with the price tag.  What a perfect gift!  I'm talking MCM and d'orsey.  I know...I know. A mixtape.  (mix cd whatever)  Seriously.  I love those! A moleskin.  Who doesn't lov

Who else has noticed newsletters are popping up everywhere? I first signed up for Lenny and after recommending it to several girlfriends, I decided to share it here.  Lenny covers such a broad range of topics concerning women.  Things I'd never thought of before.  Endometriosis...I had no idea.  Anyway, I really enjoy it. In one of those times I went on recommending Lenny, one of the girls recommended Daily Skimm .  Which, honestly, once we left our hangout I completely forgot about.  Until the next morning, delaying getting out of bed for my 6:30 am gym class, I checked my email and found she forwarded it to me.  This is clearly a news newsletter designed for 20 somethings.  It reads easy.  It's good to keep a general eye on the news (which I generally don't).  So I've only been at this one for a couple days.  But so far so good. So there you go.  My two recommendations for the many, many newsletters popping up right now.  What's your favorite?

When you spend Thanksgiving weekend with two kids who constantly keep you guessing (one minute you're an aunt, the next you're a dragon) and some awesome family time.  What's not to love? Nothing.  Absolutely nothing. It was wonderful. From bike riding to 5k ing to carriage riding we definitely hit a variety of events. We took a carriage ride through Tilles Park in St. Louis Thanksgiving Eve to see their Christmas lights, which are always amazing.  This year was no exception. We baked sugar cookies and decorated them. Charlie with his sugar cookie coated in green icing:  I'm going to bury this M&M. This meant putting the M&M on top of the existing icing and putting on an additional coat of icing.  Because why not.  It's the holidays. Did you know they sell shaped sugar cookies at the grocery store now?  They tasted pretty delicious.  Just sayin'. We had "Charlie's Special Show":  Frosty the Snowman.  (And Frosty Retu